Collection Alias

This topic describes how to manage collection aliases. Milvus supports specifying a unique alias for a collection.

A collection alias is globally unique, hence you cannot assign the same alias to different collections. However, you can assign multiple aliases to one collection.

The following example is based on the alias publication.

Create a collection alias

Specify an alias for a collection.

from pymilvus import utility
utility.create_alias(
  collection_name = "book",
  alias = "publication"
)

await milvusClient.createAlias({
  collection_name: "book",
  alias: "publication",
});

err = milvusClient.CreateAlias(
    context.Background(), // ctx
    "book",               // collection name
    "publication",        // alias
)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal("failed to create alias:", err.Error())
}

milvusClient.createAlias(
  CreateAliasParam.newBuilder()
    .withCollectionName("book")
    .withAlias("publication")
    .build()
);

create alias -c book -a publication

curl -X 'POST' \
  'http://localhost:9091/api/v1/alias' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "collection_name": "book",
    "alias":"publication"
  }'

# Output:
{}

Drop a collection alias

Drop a specified alias.

from pymilvus import utility
utility.drop_alias(alias = "publication")

await milvusClient.dropAlias({
  alias: "publication",
});

err = milvusClient.DropAlias(
    context.Background(), // ctx
    "publication",        // alias
)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal("failed to drop alias:", err.Error())
}

milvusClient.dropAlias(
  DropAliasParam.newBuilder()
    .withAlias("publication")
    .build()
);

delete alias -a publication

curl -X 'DELETE' \
  'http://localhost:9091/api/v1/alias' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "alias":"publication"
  }'

# Output:
{}

Alter a collection alias

Alter an existing alias to another collection. The following example is based on the situation that the alias publication was originally created for another collection.

from pymilvus import utility
utility.alter_alias(
  collection_name = "book",
  alias = "publication"
)

await milvusClient.alterAlias({
  collection_name: "book",
  alias: "publication",
});

err = milvusClient.AlterAlias(
    context.Background(), // ctx
    "book",               // collection name
    "publication",        // alias
)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatal("failed to alter alias:", err.Error())
}

milvusClient.alterAlias(
  AlterAliasParam.newBuilder()
    .withCollectionName("book")
    .withAlias("publication")
    .build()
);

create alias -c book -A -a publication

curl -X 'PATCH' \
  'http://localhost:9091/api/v1/alias' \
  -H 'accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "collection_name": "book",
    "alias":"publication"
  }'

{}

Limits

What's next

• Learn more basic operations of Milvus:
  • Insert data into Milvus
  • Create a partition
  • Build an index for vectors
  • Conduct a vector search
  • Conduct a hybrid search